alt Hacker NewsThey didn't give it to males, and didn't let males get it, until recently.
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You are confusing it with HPV (human papillomavirus). Hep B is a very different disease.
The first Hep B vaccine in the US is given to all infants within 24 hours of birth (unless the child is already positive for Hep B or severely underweight). And then the second vaccine a month or so later and the third between ages 6 and 18 months old. Hep B vaccination is one of the most common vaccinations received in the US.
And also as a fun little fact the first Hep B vaccine was given exclusively to gay men for a decent while until it was deemed safe enough for the general population. It was also manufactured from the blood of gay men and needle based drug users.
The Hep B vaccine that came later was recombinant and that one was given to everyone from day 1 and that's the vaccine that's been more or less the main Hep B vaccine in use up to today. Recently there's at least one new one that has been approved but the original recombinant Hep B vaccine is still regularly given.
Australia has been giving it to everyone for quite a while now. Last I saw, the virus is almost completely eradicated.
Aren't you confusing with HSV ?
So, assuming that you specifically latched on to the mention of HPV, which isn't even the same virus, "until recently" depends on the country and might mean 6-10 years ago in European countries or even as much as 15 years in other places.
The vaccines are not a prohibited drug and so in most places if you have full blown prescribing rights (e.g. a Doctor or most "Advanced Practitioner" roles) the prescriber can "go off-piste" and just prescribe anything they believe is appropriate. So it's wrong to say it wasn't "allowed".
What you're thinking off are vaccine recommendations which are shots you'll get badgered to do if you don't ask and those didn't include people assigned male at birth in many countries at first because the studies were about Cervical Cancer and obviously most people assigned male at birth do not have a cervix because that's quintessentially female anatomy [Mother Nature doesn't give a fuck, with billions of humans all kinds of weird edge cases arise]. Later studies checked that, as you might now expect, preventing HPV infection also avoids warts and other cancers induced by this virus, and thus impacts humans who don't have a cervix.